I'm not addicted to my toys - I'm not!

So, I'm way up in the Northwoods of Wisconsin for work. I had great plans to get caught up and work on some photo projects for my family while I was here. Instead, I wound up at a hotel without cell reception and WIFI. When I set my cell on the bed by my feet I had service, in my hand on the right side none. The WIFI in the meeting room would be strong for 20 minutes then cut out, and the help line was no help.

Need an idea for a quiet place to get away from it all? Call me - if I can get service I'll share....

And the day begins....

I would never be awake to see this if I didn't work nights....

In honor of today...

This morning my kids and I were talking about how remembering September 11 is so much different now that we've been there and seen these places. I thought in honor of today, I'd take you on a little sightseeing tour of some of the memorials we saw on our visit to NYC last month.

Eleven Tears: This memorial is beautiful, peaceful, and so simplistic, but no element of symbolism was overlooked. It's located across the street from the WTC in the American Express lobby at the World Financial Center. It is an eleven-sided pool with the names and descriptions of the eleven American Express employees who died on September 11 etched into the granite. In the middle is a huge, eleven-sided quartz suspended by eleven cables. Water drips down the cables and lands in the pool, making a ripple that extends out. Here is a complete description of the Eleven Tears memorial.

St. Paul's Chapel: This tiny little church across the street from the WTC has history dating back to George Washington, and became the rehab center during rescue efforts. Most of the pews were damaged by the firefighting equipment, and the decision was made to remove all but two. Now, chairs face a podium in the center of the church in a circle. Surrounding the chairs are exhibits documenting the events following September 11 from the church's perpective. The thing that makes this special is that it tells the story of how St Paul's Chapel provided and served the community during this time.

FDNY Memorial Wall: As a firefighting family this was especially powerful. Ten House sits literally across the street from the WTC site. A memorial wall on the side of the building recognizes the 343 firefighters killed on September 11. Even all these years later, people still leave momentos at the wall. It's amazing that the firehouse was even standing after the attack, and even more amazing the work these guys did that day.

WTC Site: If you follow the skywalks, you can walk completely around the WTC site. In this giant construction site, the WTC Plaza is beginning to emerge. The new 1 World Trade Center, called Freedom Tower has risen above street level. The tower will be 1776 feet tall when completed, and become America's tallest building. Work has also started to construct the two waterfalls that will be set in the exact footprint of the original towers as the main feature of the National Memorial and Museum.

Staten Island Memorial: We wandered upon this by accident. We took the ferry to Staten Island after dinner, planned to relax by the water, and then take the ferry back at night. We sat a few hunderd feet from the Memorial for more than an hour, and even commented on what an interesting piece of artwork it was, before we made it down the shoreline and found out it was a memorial. Two large "wings" are made up of each person's profile with names and photos in some of them. When you stand looking toward Manhattan, the wings perfectly frame the WTC site.

There are so many more memorials around the site and throughout the City. The Sphere from the original plaza was recovered and now stands in Battery Park. The Ground Zero Cross, a piece of steel in the shape of a cross that was recovered from the site, sits outside St. Peter's Church.

Seeing these things first hand makes the enormity of the events more clear, and in some ways more frightening - it's closer, more personal. These places also represent our ability to recover, rebuild, and remember the things that are important in life.

At least in some places "never" still means "never"

That's right...cover the guilt with shoes

My sister sent me this today, and I thought I would post it here, because I feel much less like a bad parent when I know that she is doing the very same thing that I would have done....

Well worth every penny…

In the last few days, my youngest son has been missing his older sisters who now both attend school all day. He is reminded that he is without playmates every time I slow down the momentum. I was reading a label at the grocery store when he piped in, “I miss the girls.” In the car when the music ended he said, “Can we go pick up the girls?” When we sent the girls off in the morning he stood at the end of the driveway asking, “When can I go to school?” He truly misses them.

So, with all the back to school commmercials over the past few weeks, my son has seen the “Sketcher” shoes commercial several times. When he asks for them my answer is always the same, “Your birthday is coming. We’ll see.” As parents, I would like to think that we don’t over-indulge our children. We do not partake in the back to school shopping spree. We often stay away from the backpacks and clothing with licensed characters on them. We don’t run out to purchase the latest toys and trends “as seen on TV”.

In my attempt to distract my son from his loneliness (and my feeling of being “chopped liver”) we have been doing a lot of bumming at the mall and the parks. Now, if you were to see a pair of policeman light up sketchers, where might you see them?

I caved after the third encounter with a three year old boy wearing “policeman light up shoes” on the swing next to us. Thirty-six dollars (yes, I did) and three stores later, my son was gleefully dancing around in his new “Sketchers”. He keeps them in the box and tucks them in at naptime with great care. Now, when momentum slows down, his shoes light up and save the day. So worth the $36.00!

I knew one of them would give me a good story....

As my oldest was getting ready this morning she announced, "I hate my schedule. I'm going early to change it." Why she could not do this two weeks before school started, when she got her schedule, I have no idea.

So I dropped her off at school an hour early with her "sucky" schedule, her locker shelves (again, you have two weeks to do this and wait till the morning that school starts), and a lock that she did not have the combination for. How's that for parenting....

Just get on the bus....

This morning all the children here are back to school.

Some parents must capture every last memory before their innocent baby goes out into the big world. As I was leaving the subdivision, I watched as one mom climb onto the school bus with her little one to take a picture, and took three more of the bus pulling away (I think she might have even chased it just a few steps before she realized and stopped). I also know some parents who spend the day celebrating "mom freedom day" with a few cocktails.

Me? I'll report on my kids later - I'm sure there's a bloggable story in there somewhere....

What about you? Happy to see 'em go? Can't let 'em go? Or somewhere in between....

How moms get stuff done

My teacher-husband, unlike the rest of the world, has off all summer. The first week of June we put together a list of the things that really needed to get done over the break. Today when I pulled in the driveway the giant tree branch that was on "the list" scraped along the windshield again, and I couldn't take it anymore.

I know the reasons he will give for not doing it - we don't have a chainsaw, or a ladder tall enough, the neighbor said he would help but wasn't home this week, and we should really wait until the right time in the growing season - yada yada yada.

Yeah, no. I have done everything on "the list" this summer - like painting the upstairs, cleaning the carpets, and building shelving in my daughter's closet. Did I mention he was off work all summer? My first thought was to just leave it, switch so his car is on that side of the garage and let him stand out there in November sawing away with frozen hands while I waved from the window with a hot cup of coffee. I just don't have the patience to play games.

Instead, armed with a handsaw from the toolbox downstairs, I pulled the van (the mom ladder - also useful for getting little rubber balls out of the rain gutter) onto the grass right next to the tree, and started working. An hour later, I can walk to the mailbox without ducking under the tree.

You want stuff done, ask a pissed off mom.

How predictable....

My kids went for school physicals a few weeks back, and after being measured my oldest stepped off the scale and asked, "Am I still five-foot-eight'?"

It just reminded me how it is to be a teenager - from day to day, nothing - not even your height - is a given.

The future of education....

If my husband's new school "spirit wear" is any indication of the state of our educational system, we are in serious trouble. Today at the in-service they handed out t-shirts that represent the new school philosophy of being not just a teacher - but a hero - to kids. The teachers all have to wear them tomorrow to the district meeting.

Saving and changing lives? Right after we feed them all breakfast and buy them pencils. The concept is great, but maybe a little reality check is in order. Especially since today, before school even started, a teacher's car was broken into and the GPS unit stolen right from the school parking lot!

My husband says, "Better a hero than a baby-sitter, at least."

New math

• 2 parents
• 6 children
• 12 grand-children
• 24 great grand children
• 1 family reunion

You don't know what you don't know....

I thought I knew some parenting things - then I went to a workshop on drugs. Thank God I have good kids because there's a whole crap load of stuff hidden right in front of us. All of these t-shirts are a reference to pot, and I probably passed kids wearing them in the hallways.

Kids are mixing cough syrup and alcohol cocktails that go by names like: green lizard, purple monster, sweaty Italian, and orange crush (never would have caught that).
Powerful drug substances can be made from morning glory, saliva, nutmeg, and coffee. Yeah, coffee - boiled down, mixed with ammonia. It's some scary shit.

Get educated:
www.erowid.org
www.whenjustsaynodoesntwork.com.

Time to get back to work (almost) ...

Last week we took the very first family vacation ever that did not include visiting relatives for a funeral, wedding, or reunion in a state that touches ours (that's this weekend).

We spent a week in New York City visiting museums when it was raining, wandering Time Square when it wasn't, and eating pizza and Jamba Juice. I don't usually post pictures of my kids, but this is one of my favorites from the trip - my three daughters on the ferry leaving Ellis Island.

How to work at the humane society....

If you want to work at the humane society you have to know how to answer basic questions about dogs:

"Will he shed?"
"No, not more than any other dog."

"He won't be a big dog, will he?"

"He should only grow to about 30-40 pounds."

"Will he always chew like this?"

"That's just a puppy thing."

"Wow, he's really slobbery."

He's just teething. He'll outgrow that."

"That's quite a bark."

"He's just excited because he's with you."

Driving me crazy....

Well, my oldest passed her driver's test this week. For those of you who have yet to reach this milestone, I can only compare it to the first time she went to a sleepover party when I didn't know the classmate's parents.

I debated a lot about whether I would let her drive right away or not, and had still not reached a decision when she got home that day. I decided that making her wait would only add to the anticipation and the pressure to do well her first time out.

So, she drove to herself to her basketball games the same night she passed her test. She remembered to text me when she got there, and I didn't even remind her to. She is a good driver and a safe driver - I've ridden with her - I've taught her. I guess it's really just me that isn't ready.

You don't have to toot....

After my ride into work today, I thought I might provide a brief lesson on the use of car horns and cyclists. I am a safe and defensive rider, who has logged thousands of miles, and it still startles me when a driver beeps at me. My first reaction is always, “What danger am I missing?” (the words are usually more like WTF but the thought is still about avoiding the possible hazard).

I have put together a few quick tips for using your horn while sharing the road with cyclists:

1. Do not beep to let us know you are there. I am riding in the street for God’s sake! I expect there to be cars around me. And pedestrians, and city buses, and people on the cell phone who open their car doors to let their toddler climb out of the car right in front of me. I know you are there.

2. Do not beep to encourage us. Although I appreciate the thought, I won’t acknowledge you anyway, because as soon as I turn around to say thanks I will be sucked up by a pothole the size of the Grand Canyon. If you really want to encourage me, just hold your Starbucks out the window for me to grab on the way by.

3. Do not beep because we are in your way. Because I am not in your way. I am supposed to be riding on the road (not on the sidewalk). There is only so far to the right I can ride – have you looked at the side of the road? On a normal day I'm navigating broken glass, fender parts, and road kill - and that's in the bike lane.

And, if you make me really angry you leave me no choice but to ride even s-l-o-w-e-r. So if you are feeling a little horny as you pass the next cyclist, do what you need to do - but please don't beep at us....

Seriously?

I went to use the bathroom at a the hotel where I was attending a conference and this is what I found. So do they have a little stack of the pre-folded fans on their cleaning cart? Or do they fold one each time? And if they fold it each time, where in the bathroom do they do that - on the sink? On the floor? On their leg? I'm still not sure if I am impressed that they care about the details or annoyed that someone feels the housekeepers actually have nothing better to do than fold toilet paper fans. I wound up using a different stall so I wouldn't ruin all their work.

Put those back!

Our dog was out in the yard and dug up a bunny nest that was hidden under our pine tree. We stopped him before he injured any (he grew up with guinea pigs and hamsters - I think he was rescuing them). I would have been perfectly willing to keep five baby bunnies (in your dreams) but every source said to put them back.

While we were debating what to do with them, the momma bunny came back looking for them. We did our best to replace the nest around them, and I arranged some long grass over top so I'd know if the momma had been there. The momma will only come back at dusk and dawn to avoid drawing attention to the nest. And the grass was only slightly moved, so I doubt any predators ate them.

I am just gonna stay in my happy place believing that they are the ones I see hopping around the yard....

I feel so helpless....

My computer has been down for the past two weeks and it has been horrible! Every time I wrote a check I worried that an automatic payment cleared while I couldn't check my balance. I sent back a Netflix movie and didn't know which one was coming next. I had to scroll through pages of Face book status updates to find out what everyone is doing. Event schedules, the weather, the headlines - all gone.

My brother in law hooked me up with a temporary computer, and now I have internet and all my applications again while he fixes my other one (I love you BIL).

How NOT to train your employees.

I just got back from a required training on how to provide excellent customer service. The training was scheduled from 9am-1pm. At 1:15 we were only half way through the outline, so I motioned the instructor over and asked, "How much longer do you think we will go?" He said, "Oh, we should be out by 2:30 or 3:00."

Someone who keeps me 2 hours over the scheduled time clearly doesn't respect my time, doesn't really know what he is teaching, and isn't gonna share anything about customer service that I don't already know. Maybe I just have a bad attitude.